Mokena park plan is left in limbo

December 09, 2001|By Pat Harper. Special to the Tribune.

Stung by the sudden collapse of an annexation agreement hammered out at a joint meeting with village trustees, Mokena Park District commissioners have decided to keep their Yunker Park development options open.

They will honor a plea by Mayor Robert Chiszar to give the village trustees a chance to annex the 115-plus acres of Yunker farmland. A meeting to consider the issue will take place Monday.

A compromise reached in late November had the village accepting the Park District's plan for a recreation center on the Yunker site and the Park District agreeing to expand the role of a citizens advisory group in planning for the rest of the site, which occupies the north and south sides of LaPorte Road just west of Schoolhouse Road.

After the collapse of the agreement, park board members said they will continue to pursue development plans with Will County.

"Let's just let things move forward as they have. Let's not burn any bridges," said a skeptical Tom Canna, Park Board president.

"I find it troubling," he said. "I thought we were all on the same page. What should have been just a simple thing to accomplish has not been accomplished."

Commissioner Mark Costigan said, "Nothing this good should be this hard. We locked ourselves in a room, and we didn't come out until we had an agreement. We absolutely can't close the door to any option."

The Mokena Park District purchased the Yunker farm in 1997. Prior to the agreement, the district had tried to work with the village on its proposal, but it was thwarted.

It then turned to the county to develop the unincorporated parcel.

Another vote by the Village Board was postponed because Trustee Joe Werner was undergoing medical treatment for a weekend injury. Trustee Ronda Pawelski unexpectedly voted against annexation. That left the board one short of the five votes required for annexation. Trustee Joseph Siwinski also voted "no" as expected.

Parks Commissioner Kevin Flight said if Pawelski had a problem with the agreement she should have mentioned it at the joint meeting.

"We can build this recreation center without asking the residents of Mokena for a single dime," she said.

But Siwinski said voters had turned down a proposal to build a recreation center in an earlier referendum, and the Yunker family wanted the farmland to remain "pristine."

Pawelski said the Park District should have held a referendum or sent out a survey to determine what residents wanted.

Trustee Bob Stillman disagreed. "We've heard from residents. If somebody was against it, why weren't they at the Park District meeting?" he said.

Trustee John Mazzorana noted that the referendum in which voters turned down a tax increase to finance a recreation center was held in the spring of 1996, but that voters later that year approved a tax hike to buy Yunker Farm.

Chiszar, who had hailed the compromise as ensuring the park would be developed within village borders, said he is "very confident and hopeful" trustees will vote to annex Yunker Park.

"Two things are in the forefront of all our minds," Chiszar said. "Yunker Park belongs in Mokena, and the [annexation] agreement was good."